by papillion » Feb 15th, '11, 14:58
I adore The Illusionist. Magic, turn of the century, beautiful music, and butterflies as an added bonus - it's pretty close to my perfect film.
The commentary on the dvd/making of program (can't remember which) did explain why they used cgi for part of the orange tree. They had a partial tree built, which did part of the effect, then used cgi to enhance it, so that it would be just beyond what was physically possible. They did the same thing with most of the effects, using the authentic methods where they could, but using cgi to improve/enhance them.
It sounds like the idea was to show magic that was around at the time, but take it one stage further than would have been possible if they had done it for real. A great deal of the storyline revolves around whether Eisenheim was just a magician, or whether there was something more going on, so it makes sense to slightly alter all the effects to help create that doubt.